# diabetes vs diabetic

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### diabetes
*noun · IPA /ˌdaɪəˈbiːtiːz/ · frequency rank #5,413*
Diabetes mellitus; any of a group of metabolic diseases whereby a person (or other animal) has high blood sugar due to an inability to produce, or inability to metabolize, sufficient quantities of the hormone insulin.

### diabetic
*adjective · IPA /daɪəˈbɛtɪk/ · frequency rank #16,003*
Of or pertaining to diabetes, especially diabetes mellitus.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/diabetes-vs-diabetic